Lawn mower engine problems

My Briggs & Stratton won't run unless the choke is open completely. It'll sputter, cough and die when run without the choke open. Cleaned out the air filter and fuel filter and topped the tank off with fresh gas but none of those things fixed the problem.

The problem is a recent development. Mower ran like a champ until this week. Just started running like crap about 1/3 of the way into mowing the 2+ acres that is my yard. Had to finish mowing at a slow ass pace. What should have taken about 4 hours took me about 6 hours to complete.

Wackbag Staff

Exactly. Last year, I had to tear down the carb on my tractor after the first tank of ethanol because the ethanol cleaned all this crud from everywhere and filled the carb float bowl with this muck... I had to do a mini-teardown a week later and get everything that was left. But, it's been fine ever since.

Wackbag Staff

By Open, do you actually mean Closed? A choke being open (Full Air) is the normal running position. Closed (Restricted Air) is the starting position.

If you mean closed then yeah, it's a lack of fuel flow caused by any of the above problems. You could buy a new carb for 50 bucks and change it in 3 minutes. Or you could spend an hour or 2 disassembling and cleaning with no guarantee of operation when you're done.

By Open, do you actually mean Closed? A choke being open (Full Air) is the normal running position. Closed (Restricted Air) is the starting position.

If you mean closed then yeah, it's a lack of fuel flow caused by any of the above problems. You could buy a new carb for 50 bucks and change it in 3 minutes. Or you could spend an hour or 2 disassembling and cleaning with no guarantee of operation when you're done.

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Thanks to everyone for helping me out. I'm gonna take the carb apart and clean everything out to see what happens. Hope that fixes the problem.

And never use ethanol in a small engine. Might eat away at the gaskets, resulting in costly repair bills. That's what the Vietnam vet with the half glasses and thousand yard stare that runs the small engine shop told me.

Took the carb apart and sprayed it down with carb and choke cleaner. Thing was a mess inside. Put it back together, sprayed starting fluid in the newly cleaned carb and it fired right up. Only to die a few seconds later. Crap. Took everything apart again and checked to make sure things were where they belonged. Had the float seated wrong so no gas was getting to the engine. Fixed that, put everything back together again, sprayed starting fluid again and it fired up. Stayed running this time. What a difference a cleaning makes.

And never use ethanol in a small engine. Might eat away at the gaskets, resulting in costly repair bills. That's what the Vietnam vet with the half glasses and thousand yard stare that runs the small engine shop told me.

Wackbag Staff

And never use ethanol in a small engine. Might eat away at the gaskets, resulting in costly repair bills. That's what the Vietnam vet with the half glasses and thousand yard stare that runs the small engine shop told me.

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Good luck with that, considering the only gasoline sold today contains 10% ethanol.

Took the carb apart and sprayed it down with carb and choke cleaner. Thing was a mess inside. Put it back together, sprayed starting fluid in the newly cleaned carb and it fired right up. Only to die a few seconds later. Crap. Took everything apart again and checked to make sure things were where they belonged. Had the float seated wrong so no gas was getting to the engine. Fixed that, put everything back together again, sprayed starting fluid again and it fired up. Stayed running this time. What a difference a cleaning makes.

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

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now that you've done that and know where all the parts go , do it every 1/2 a year or yearly, depending on how much you mow. I owned a lawn buss years ago , and I did this crap every month.

hey honey, let the big boys play with the power tools and you go fetch me and the fellas some nice fresh pie..... while your at it grab me a beer

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Why don't you go buy a new lawn mower with money your dog chewed up asshole. I know a thing or two about two stroke briggs & stratton engines and I think the engine might be flooding, Did I mention fuck you! Wavy hand thing

Why don't you go buy a new lawn mower with money your dog chewed up asshole. I know a thing or two about two stroke briggs & stratton engines and I think the engine might be flooding, Did I mention fuck you! Wavy hand thing

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oh i give.......

un less going back and forth gets you all worked up then thats a different story

Wackbag Staff

Why don't you go buy a new lawn mower with money your dog chewed up asshole. I know a thing or two about two stroke briggs & stratton engines and I think the engine might be flooding, Did I mention fuck you! Wavy hand thing